A publication in JAMA Psychiatry indicates that 1 in 8 Americans may be at risk related to alcohol consumption. This may be a public health problem much like the current opioid epidemic but with a much longer fuse.

The concept of the out-of-work, down-on-luck alcoholic is not operative today. The vast majority of people with alcohol use disorders or risky drinking have jobs and/or are raising families. They are college students and parents and grandparents and in every walk of life. The one thing they all have in common is either a lack of understanding--or a denial--of the risk.